Retroist Commodore VIC-20 Podcast

Welcome to the Retroist Commodore VIC-20 Podcast. On this week’s show I talk all about the Commodore VIC-20. I talk about the company that made it, the people involved, the technology inside and much much more. Music on the show was provided by Peachy.

This was the first computer that I owned, so it is very near and dear to me. I hope my appreciation and passion for it comes through in the show.

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11 thoughts on “Retroist Commodore VIC-20 Podcast”

The Vic somehow escaped my attention when it was released. I was more focused on the next generation of video game consoles. By the time my attention turned to computers, the VIC’s heyday had passed and my dad had this goofy notion that IBM computers were going to be popular, so that’s what we got. I’m looking forward to this podcast and learning more about this fantastic machine.

Thanks for another great episode. Your work gives me a lot of joy. Your mention of Henry Morgan being the voice of Commodore commercials was very interesting to me as I am familiar from his work as the host of a radio show from the days before television where he would regularly ridicule the sponsors he was required to mention (and resented having to do so). Here are some clips of him doing that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJrf_Ai-Jr0

I briefly had a Vic-20 brighten my home, but barely remember what interactions I had with it. I recall staring at that white screen a lot and wondering how to make spaceships appear.
It got quickly switched to the higher-end, more uppity, but classier C64, once we all stared at the poor V20 ineffectively, as a group of non-computer people (it musta been glad to get a better home). And that tried n’ true brown buddy stuck with me to this day.
Enjoyed typing in programs from these U.K. booklets (which had typos themselves – couldn’t have been me…). Didn’t matter that I got only one of ’em to run.
It gave me the confidence to dominate the living room TV for entire evenings (’til the real world news came up).

Had lots of fun staring at the Vic-20 in school beforehand. And our computer class teacher was actually called Vic (guess what his nick was).
I’m still fuzzy as to what uses we made of it.
My 80s memory is like a datasette awaiting its own grape juice eventuality.
If it hasn’t already happened.

Decent podcast, but the C16 was not an interim machine between the Vic 20 and the Commodore 64. It started production about half way through the 64’s life cycle, and was Commodore’s attempt at being a ‘learning computer’. It used the same technology as the Commodore +4, without the option ROMs or the (much needed) memory. It (and the +4) were deliberately made incompatible with the Vic 20/Commodore 64 accessories, in order to keep it from competing with the 64.